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Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Buhari Should Not Negotiate With Boko Haram - by Bayo Olupohunda

“Terror
must be stopped. No nation can negotiate with terrorists. For there is
no way to make peace with those whose only goal is death” – George Bush,
Rose Garden, April 4, 2002

In the aftermath of the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States of America
that brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and killed
close to 4,000 people in New York, American pride and national security
were dealt a hard blow by the Osama bin Laden inspired al Qaeda
terrorist attack. Apart from the casualties suffered in the attacks, the
American government and its people felt vulnerable that their national
security had been severely breached by the terrorists in attacks that
occurred simultaneously in three locations. The attack on the Pentagon
particularly, the powerhouse of America’s security and intelligence
network, shocked an entire nation.

In response to the
terrorist attack, former President George Bush rallied his citizens’
patriotism and nationalism with an impassioned speech that evoked
America’s greatness in times of crisis. In an address to the nation, the
President said, “The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires
burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief,
terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass
murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But
they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people have been moved
to defend a great nation.”

Then he vowed: “The
search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I have
directed the full resources for our intelligence and law enforcement
communities to find those responsible and bring them to justice. We will
make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and
those who harbour them.”

Since the 2001 attacks, America has
never been the same again. The country strengthened its internal
security structures with the establishment of the Department of Homeland
Security. Bin Laden and top terror masterminds were hunted down and
killed and Al Qaeda has been significantly weakened. However, that the
2013 Boston marathon bombing happened has been a constant reminder that
the threat is not over yet.

In the years since September 11,
America has been in a state of constant security alertness. The country
more than ever before recognises the new threat posed by groups like the
ISIS and has been cooperating with its allies to defeat the new wave of
terrorism. In its terror war, it is noteworthy that America and its
allies never for once contemplated negotiating with extremists. What
they did was strengthen their security and intelligence response by
infiltrating terrorists’ cells and networks.

This same response
has been the approach and strategy deployed by countries who are facing
insurgency fuelled by religious extremism globally. Negotiating or
granting amnesty to terrorists has never worked for obvious reasons.
Extremists, especially those driven by religion consider others as
infidels who must be destroyed. They will not take amnesty from or sit
on a negotiating table with anyone or group who their interpretation of
religion labels as an unbeliever-which makes it imperative that they be
destroyed or they destroy their enemies. We must learn from the
atrocities of ISIS militants in Iraq who even kill fellow Muslims as
Boko Haram have been doing in Nigeria. Have they not recently been
aligned with our Boko Haram? Let’s take a contemporary historical lesson
from Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge, a terrorist group organised by Pol Pot
which orchestrated the genocide in the Cambodian jungle in the 1960s,
was eventually destroyed.

In the light of the above and given
the ongoing atrocities and impunity of our homegrown Boko Haram, I have
always considered the insistence of every Nigerian government to
contemplate granting amnesty or negotiate with the terror group as
ridiculous, ill-advised, a disservice to the nation and affront to the
souls the insurgents have brutally murdered and maimed in recent years.

When
I read that the Buhari Presidency is thinking of negotiating with Boko
Haram, my visceral reaction was: No, not again. How can they? The
question is: Have they forgotten the botched attempts to make Boko Haram
embrace peace? The truth is that Boko Haram will not make peace with
this government. Why are those in government finding it difficult to
realise this? The group has consistently said that it did not recognise
the government in Abuja. Its aim is to establish a caliphate and
Islamise the North in line with its ideology.

The group has
professed a rejection democracy. It considers anyone outside of its
worldview on Islam an infidel-even fellow Muslims. If there is any doubt
that Boko Haram meant business, the recent killings and suicide
bombings even in a government headed by a Muslim and a northerner should
prove doubters wrong. Our recent history should be instructive to the
present government. All attempts to negotiate with Boko Haram or grant
it amnesty had been spurned by the organisation. In fact, it had often
increased bombings every time negotiation was being arranged.

The
group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, even mocked the amnesty proposal.
Shekau had said derisively, “Surprisingly, the Nigerian government is
talking about granting us amnesty. What wrong have we done? On the
contrary, it is we that should grant you (a) pardon.” This came after
northern religious and political leaders had urged President Goodluck
Jonathan to grant an amnesty to the insurgents.

The desperation
to end the insurgency had also led the then government into entering
what later became a phoney cease fire talk with impostors. The
government was allegedly swindled and its aftermath hurt and embarrassed
the Jonathan presidency. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the
human rights activist now Senator, Shehu Sani, also had their fingers
burnt in the attempt to make Boko Haram embrace peace.

My
opinion on Nigeria’s terror war with Boko Haram is that the group must
be destroyed before they destroy our country. They have recently aligned
with ISIS. They have the international network and funding to achieve
their aim. We also have to learn from history. Negotiating with
terrorists does nothing but embolden terrorism. Many countries facing
terrorism adopt it as a diplomatic and foreign policy strategy.
President George Bush once gave this as a reply to a question: “You’ve
got to be strong, not weak. The only way to deal with these people is to
bring them to justice. You can’t talk to them. You can’t negotiate with
them.” The late British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, also once
said “democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorists
and hijackers of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend.”

Considering
that negotiation with Boko Haram will suggest a sign of weakness, it
will present an image that the government is afraid to lose which means
lack of adequate fighting resources and power levels or that even if
they think they can win, they will suffer heavy losses as we have seen
in recent times. Mr. President should know he is leading the most
populous black nation on earth. Negotiating with Boko Haram is not an
option. They must be routed. The hard way is the only way. Do not
negotiate with Boko Haram.